The night was still thick with salt and smog as Kunal stepped onto the hidden Mumbai shoreline, boots crunching over damp gravel. The boat pulled away without a word, disappearing into the black sea.
Under the pale glow of a distant streetlamp, Abhishek leaned against his car, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
The moment Kunal approached, Abhishek straightened, silently unlocking the passenger door. Neither spoke on the drive back. The city blurred past — neon flickers, sleeping slums, the muffled throb of late-night traffic — but inside the car, it was all silence and tension.
When they reached the flat, Kunal barely had time to take off his shoes before Ananya rushed him — arms wrapping tightly around his chest. The force nearly knocked the breath from his lungs.
"Kunal!" she gasped. "Are you hurt? Are you okay? You're not bleeding anywhere, right?"
Her hands moved over his shoulders, his arms, his face, checking every inch, until she realized what she was doing — and froze, face turning bright red. She stepped back quickly, staring at the floor, fingers twisted together.
Abhishek gave a sharp whistle from the doorway, a grin tugging at his mouth.
"Whoa, whoa. Is this the new normal? Should I jump on Kunal too, or is that strictly a thing between you two?"
Kunal shot him a flat look.
"You stay away from me."
Ananya mumbled something inaudible, hiding her face behind her hair.
Abhishek's grin faded as his gaze sharpened.
"Okay, jokes aside — did you go there to look for answers or a plastic surgery?"
Kunal frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"Go look in the mirror, Mr Warrior."
Kunal padded into the bathroom, flicked on the light — and froze.
His irises were no longer just dark brown. Threads of crimson and gold coiled through them, swirling like molten metal. His pupils had shifted, too — now shaped like a lotus, a golden center ringed with delicate crimson petals.
And on his forehead, faint but unmistakable, was a mark: a sun enclosed inside a blooming lotus.
For a moment, Kunal simply stared, one hand lifting toward the mark as if to wipe it away. But it didn't fade.
Ananya hovered in the doorway, voice soft.
"Kunal… what happened there?"
He exhaled hard, gripping the sink.
"Everything," he murmured.
---
Back in the living room, Kunal sat forward, hands clasped tight, shoulders tense.
He told them everything.
About the secluded bay.
The dark trek through the jungle.
The man in the white suit waiting just outside the cave, already knowing his location.
He described the island being sealed — how nothing worked, how the man knew everything, even about the Sanskrit language based start-up he'd been working on for months.
He then talked about the crimson stars overhead, how the moment he first noticed them weeks ago, something inside him had started to stir since then. How his vision blurred. How his body felt different each time syncing with the changes of the same crimson star which was now turning to a constellation.
He told them about the mirror the Deva summoned from thin air — showing him his shifting eyes — but at that time, the blooming lotus pattern hadn't appeared in his pupils or on his forehead.
About the blazing trishul.
"And when he was leaving," Kunal whispered, eyes distant like relieving that moment, "he chanted a Vedic hymn… and the whole place shifted. The air got so heavy I couldn't stand. My knees buckled. I thought I was being crushed from the inside. And Shiva's third eye…" He touched his forehead absently. "It glowed."
The room fell still.
He closed his eyes, voice low, reciting:
"ṛtaṃ ca satyaṃ cābhīddhāttapaso'dhyajāyata,
tato rātryajāyata tataḥ samudro arṇavaḥ.
samudrād arṇavād adhi saṃvatsaro ajāyata,
ahorātrāṇi vidadhad viśvasya miṣato vaśī.
sūryācandramasau dhātā yathāpūrvamakalpayat,
divaṃ ca pṛthivīṃ cāntarikṣam atho svaḥ."
Explaining the meaning of the verse also to them
"From heat were born truth and cosmic order.
From them, night. And from night, the rolling ocean.
From the ocean, the year.
The year divided day and night,
and ruled over all that moves.
The sun and moon were set in place,
and the heavens, the earth, and the space between."
He continued
"It's strange — when I hear or read these languages, I understand them instantly. It's like they're more native to me than the Hindi."
Ananya's eyes were wide, her lips parted, breath coming shallow.
Abhishek's jaw clenched, his fingers steepled, face shadowed in deep thought.
"So," Abhishek finally rasped, "just to recap… because of some pact with Devas by the person whose identity we will have to uncover by ourselvs, because of that pact now you have reincarnated as some divine prince, hunted by demons, watched by gods, and now marked like some walking prophecy?"
Kunal gave a small, crooked grin.
"Yeah. That about sums it up."
Ananya found her voice, trembling.
"And the stars… you think they started this? The change in your eyes, your mind?"
"I am sure they're part of it," Kunal murmured. "They're watching, just like the rest."
"The Devas are real. The Rakshasas are on a hunt. And we have twenty months before the thin layer of safety I have — that we have — vanishes. If I am not ready till that time I will lose everything."
Abhishek let out a long breath.
"Man. You don't do anything halfway. Remind me to never play poker with you again. And it looks like your start-up just got a whole new feature list."
Kunal leaned back, head tipping against the couch, eyes half-lidded.
"I didn't ask for any of this."
Ananya stepped closer putting her hand on his shoulder, her fingers were light, but the warmth grounded him. Voice soft but sure.
"You're not facing it alone."
Kunal's gaze flicked up, and for the first time that night, his tired face eased into something almost peaceful.
"Yeah," he murmured, "I know.".
To be continued…